Cuban General Confesses To Drug Dealing, Says, `I Deserve To Die`

June 29, 1989|By New York Times News Service.

HAVANA — In a riveting, abject confession to charges of drug trafficking and corruption, one of Cuba`s highest-ranking army officers was shown on state television Tuesday night describing himself as a traitor to the Cuban revolution and saying, ``I deserve to die.``

The accused officer, Gen. Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez, was shown speaking to a special Cuban military tribunal that unanimously urged Monday night that he be condemned for ``high treason against the fatherland.`` It recommended he bear ``the full weight of the law,`` a phrase that is widely understood in Cuba to mean death by firing squad.

According to military law, Ochoa must be sentenced by a formal court-martial, but he could be executed within a matter of days.

Shown on television standing before the tribunal`s president, Ochoa said: ``I believe that the tribunal of my own conscience is harsher than any other. I despise myself. I have no reason to live.``

Speaking in a firm voice, but gazing only at the ceiling or the floor, he said he had only himself to blame and he would dispute none of the charges against him. The general said his only concern was to protect the

international reputation of the revolution he had betrayed.

``If I should be condemned to a firing squad,`` Ochoa said, ``I promise you all that, at that moment, my last thought would be of Fidel (Castro), and of the great revolution he has given our people.``

The general`s confession was the emotional high point of a trial that has become one of the most important political events in Cuba since the revolution succeeded and Castro came to power at the beginning of 1959.

The broadcast of his statement, carried on both official television channels, captivated the Cuban public. The sound of the disgraced officer`s words could be heard in the streets from open windows as thousands of citizens tuned in to hear what he might say.

Ochoa, 57, has served as supreme Cuban commander in Angola, Ethiopia and Nicaragua.

He is accused of taking part in a wide range of illegal activities, including smuggling ivory and diamonds in Angola, laundering money and arranging secret flights across Cuban territory on behalf of the powerful cocaine cartel based in Medellin, Colombia.

In scenes broadcast from the tribunal`s Monday session, a series of former aides to Ochoa gave detailed testimony portraying an extensive network of black marketeering and corruption in the Cuban military mission in Angola while Ochoa was the commander.